New York University Wins Dismissal of Development Suit

March 18 (Bloomberg) -- New York University won dismissal
of a suit filed by tenants in nearby rent-stabilized apartments
who oppose plans to expand the school’s Greenwich Village
campus, after a judge said it’s too early to assess the project.

The New York City Council voted in July to allow New York
University to add 1.9 million square feet to the campus for
classrooms, a gym and housing in the face of objections from
residents and faculty who said it would change the character of
the neighborhood.

Tenants of Washington Square Village, a group of high-rise
apartment buildings in the area, sued the school in August,
seeking a court order stopping the university from taking any
action to eliminate a two-acre park in the center of the village
as well as a commercial strip and a garden forming the park’s
boundary.

New York State Supreme Court Justice Ellen M. Coin denied
the tenants’ request for a preliminary injunction and dismissed
the suit in a decision dated March 14 and posted today, saying
that the plaintiffs first need to raise the matter with the
state Division of Housing and Community Renewal.

“Considering that NYU’s construction project is currently
in its infancy, with architectural and engineering plans not
even drafted, much less finalized, this legal controversy has
not fully matured and is subject to long-term gestational
development and a long array of changes that may be made to the
underlying plans,” Coin said.

$6 Billion

The $6 billion expansion plan is opposed by dozens of
university departments and divisions and has sparked lawsuits
from community residents and faculty members. Professors in the
university’s largest school passed a vote of no-confidence in
President John Sexton this weekend, saying he failed to consult
with them on the plan.

Sexton has been at the helm since 2002. While he has raised
the profile of the school, overseeing a record $3 billion in
fundraising, he has alienated faculty and angered locals with
the expansion plan. His proposal for construction in the
neighborhood, called NYU 2031, is opposed by 39 of the
university’s departments and divisions, according to NYU Faculty
Against the Sexton Plan, a teachers’ group.

The case is WSV Green Neighbors Inc. v. New York
University, 155507/2012, New York State Supreme Court
(Manhattan).